Report details ‘systemic failures,’ ‘egregious’ decisions in Uvalde shooting response

For families in Uvalde, Sunday brought with it the weight of the most exhaustive account of their loved one’s final moments yet. In a long-awaited, 77-page report, a Texas House committee concluded there is not one person to blame, but instead a long series of “systemic failures and egregious poor decision making” that allowed the deadliest school shooting in state history to unfold May 24.

The report, reviewed Sunday by The Dallas Morning News, is the second to examine the law enforcement response in the past two weeks. On July 6, a 26-page report by the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University, commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Safety, detailed three missed opportunities to slow — or even stop — the gunman before he entered Robb Elementary school, killing 19 children and two teachers.

The three committee members — Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock; Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso and former state Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman — first shared their findings during a private meeting with Uvalde residents Sunday. The committee said the goal was to “provide answers and prevent similar tragedies in the future.”

“A safer environment for all Texas children is one of the ways we can honor the memory of the students and teachers murdered in Uvalde,” the report said.

The document was dedicated to the 21 people killed.

“The Committee issues this interim report now, believing the victims, their families, and the entire Uvalde community have already waited too long for answers and transparency,” the report said.

376 officers

Law enforcement has been widely criticized for the response in Uvalde. Eighty minutes elapsed between the first call to 911 and police confronting the shooter, who fired at least 142 rounds, according to a timeline from Texas Department of Public Safety director Steve McCraw.

In an uncoordinated effort that stretched over an hour, 376 officers responded. Of that, 149 were U.S. Border Patrol, 91 were state police, 25 were Uvalde police officers and 16 were Uvalde sheriff’s deputies.

Only five were Uvalde school district officers.

“These local officials were not the only ones expected to supply the leadership needed during this tragedy,” the report said. “Hundreds of responders from numerous law enforcement agencies — many of whom were better trained and better equipped than the school district police — quickly arrived on the scene.”

Law enforcement officials across the state have agreed the decision to not confront the shooter sooner cost lives, with most placing the blame on Pete Arredondo, the school district police chief, who said afterward he didn’t believe he was in charge. Yet, in the district’s written active shooter plan, the report says Arredondo assigned himself incident commander.

In interviews conducted or obtained by the committee, police officers said they either assumed Arredondo was in command or did not know who was in charge, with some describing the scene as “chaos.”

Redirecting the blame thus far largely focused on Arrendondo, the report went on to note that no other agency attempted to take the lead, either, until Border Patrol agents decided they would breach the classroom without seeking permission.

“In this crisis, no responder seized the initiative to establish an incident command post,” the committee wrote. “Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies did not approach the Uvalde CISD chief of police or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or to offer that specific assistance.”

In a statement Sunday, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said Lt. Mariano Pargas, the city’s acting police chief, had been placed on administrative leave to determine whether he was responsible for taking command.

Against orders, efforts still unsuccessful

The report did note officers who attempted to go against orders, but were either stopped or didn’t receive adequate support to follow through.

For instance, the report says Uvalde Police Department Lt. Javier Martinez attempted to confront the shooter after gunfire through the classroom door caused officers to retreat to both ends of the hallway. As Martinez started back up the hallway, no officers followed him, causing him to stop. The report says multiple officers told the committee that they believed if others had followed his lead, he might have made it to the classroom and engaged with the shooter.

The reports also says DPS Special Agent Luke Williams disregarded a request that he help secure the outside perimeter and instead went inside the school to help clear rooms. Williams found a student hiding in a boys bathroom stall with his legs up so he couldn’t be seen. The boy refused to come out until Williams proved he was a police officer, which he did by showing his badge beneath the door of the stall.

As each new revelation since May 24 begs the question if more lives could have been saved had law enforcement intervened sooner, Sunday’s report says most of the 21 victims died immediately, torn apart or even decapitated by a weapon so powerful, one surviving teacher said he never heard a cry or a whimper as the gunfire rang out.

“Given the information known about victims who survived through the time of the breach and who later died on the way to the hospital,” the committee wrote, “it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue.”

Complacency in school safety

The report says Robb Elementary School too often took shortcuts, prioritizing convenience over safety.

Multiple witnesses said employees often left doors unlocked, even using rocks, wedges and magnets to prop them open, which the report said is partially due to a shortage of keys.

“In fact, the school actually suggested circumventing the locks as a solution for the convenience of substitute teachers and others who lacked their own keys,” the report said. “Had school personnel locked the doors as the school’s policy required, that could have slowed his progress for a few precious minutes — long enough to receive alerts, hide children, and lock doors.”

The school has an emergency management alert system, but the committee found some faculty and staff did not initially take the lockdown seriously because they were desensitized to the alert system, which was often triggered by immigration-related police pursuits.

The alert system is supposed to operate by sending out warnings online to teachers and faculty, but the report said not all teachers received one due to a poor wireless internet signal and the fact many teachers didn’t have their phones on them, or had them turned off.

The report concluded Principal Mandy Gutierrez never attempted to communicate the lockdown over the school’s intercom system.

‘Just tell us the truth’

Gone are the flower arrangements, the balloons, television satellite trucks and crowds at Uvalde’s main square. All that’s left is the anger.

“I’m not pissed that the media put the video out. It’s what I saw in the video that pisses me off,” said Michael Brown, holding a sign that read: “Prosecute Pete Arredondo.” Brown was referring to the 77-minute hallway footage of the botched law enforcement response leaked earlier this week.

“It’s as though they want us to forget, but we’re not forgetting,” said Brown, whose youngest son was a student at Robb Elementary School at the time of the shooting. He was in the cafeteria, not one of the classrooms, when the gunfire rang out.

Brown said he felt the need to stand at the corner, despite 100 degree weather.

“I’m not going to let the hot sun stop me,” he said. “This is about holding officials responsible and I will not be distracted by the video,” Brown said. “I’m glad it’s out there to show what really happened. Just tell us the truth.”

Next to him was a group of women who decorated trees with pictures and names of the victims. Martin Garcia, 55, cried by a photo of 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza.

‘She’s my niece,” he said. “She was so gifted and so loving.”

“We need to really stand strong together and fight,” said Naomi Chapa, 33, an educator and aunt of two students who were at Robb Elementary School. Both were unhurt. “We can’t let them silence us.”

Overnight, Chapa returned to the square and lit battery-operated tea candles. Some parents showed up with crosses bearing names of their children. By Sunday morning, the crosses were still up.

Chapa said some residents and parents want the square to serve as a memorial over the school “because students and teachers bled out there. The soil is soaked in blood. It’s very difficult to stand there and be reminded of the failure of so many law enforcement, starting with Pete Arredondo.”

As for the report, Chapa pleaded for the committee to “just tell us the truth.”

“That’s all we want,” she said. “That’s where justice begins.”

‘Pathetic’

Sunday afternoon, a news conference to discuss the report’s findings was held at the Uvalde Civic Center, where families previously gathered the night of May 24 to find out whether their children were among the dead.

Michael Brown, still holding his sign, attended and said the report’s findings were “disgusting” and “pathetic.”

“No one did anything,” he told The News. “They just stood around, looking incompetent.”

Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, said he understands the answers presented in the report are more complex than the community may have hoped, becoming emotional as he noted similar frustrations after the 2019 mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart that killed 22 and injured 20.

“We want to tell ourselves that systems work,” Moody said. “We want to tell ourselves that there’s one person we can point our fingers at. We want to tell ourselves that this won’t happen again. That’s just not true. What happened here is complicated.”

The three committee members took questions from reporters for about 45 minutes, leaving no time for input from community members. Ruben Mata, great-grandfather of 10-year-old Lexi Rubio, who was killed in the massacre, shouted “You bunch of cowards” as the committee left the room.

Outside the Civic Center, Evadulia Orta, who lost her 10-year-old son Rojelio Torres, said Sunday’s report was a far cry from justice, which to her is seeing the officers who didn’t go inside the classroom “held accountable for what they did.”

“Why did it take them that long? Why didn’t they go in?” Orta asked. “The fact that I didn’t hear anything about accountability just kills me.”

Moody, noting there is more work to be done, said he hopes their report can lay the foundation for meaningful change.

“I made a promise to the people of El Paso that I haven’t forgotten … to do everything in my power to make sure the Legislature understands what happened — and why — and to fight for the solutions we deserve,” he said. “I make that same promise here, today, in Uvalde.”

Staff writer Alfredo Corchado contributed to this report.